In China, shopping is one of the main pastimes and many tourists find themselves spinning around in shops and market places – it should be quite an easy task to find things to buy in China! In order to make your shopping experience even more enjoyable, you should make some preliminary preparations - learn to bargain, and why not also learn the colors in Chinese. Now, just imagine yourself stepping into a shop filled with all those wonderful silk fabrics...

The shop assistant might ask you what color you would like: Nín xĭhuan nă gè yánsè? Nín is ”You”, xĭhuan is the verb ”to like, fancy”. Nă gè means ”what”, yánsè is “color”.

If it happens that you like the color red, you can express it by saing Wŏ xĭhuan hóng sè. Wŏ, is ”I”, hóng stands for ”red”. Sè means ”color” (yánsè and sè share the same meaning here).

To the Chinese red is the best of all colors, as it stands for happines and well-being. Red has been an essential part of the Chinese culture long before the new socialist China adopted red for its emblem. Traditionally, Chinese brides got married dressed in red.

If yellow is more your style, you'll find yourself feeling at home in China. Yellow, huáng, is the color of Chinese emperors. Even the first emperor of China was called Huáng dì, the Yellow Emperor. Yellow also dominates the Chinese mindset, as the cradle of Chinese civilization is considered to lie on the banks of the Yellow River, Huáng hé.

Blue is lán in Chinese. This word is rather interesting as such, because it does not exist in classical Chinese literature and got popular only after the Chinese started to use the indigo plant. Thus the word lán is derived from the name of the indigo plant, huái lán. A much older word for blue would be qīng, which is a bit confusing in the sense that in reality, it can refer top any blueish or greenish color, and sometimes even to shades of grey or black. Figure that out.

Green is lǜ and black is hēi in Chinese. Black has the same kind of negative connotation in China that it has in the western world. For example, the mafia is called hēi shèhuì, ”black society”. The color white, bái, is traditionally associated with funerals, as people used to dress in white when they paid respect to the deceased. Nowadays it is by no means a mistake to wear white clothes at any informal occasion. Most modern Chinese brides have switched to wearing white wedding dresses too. The word bái has a positive connotation also in the sense that a classical Chinese beauty is supposed to be ”white”, or fair by her complexion.

Ní xĭhuan nă gè yánsè? 你 喜 欢 那 个 颜 色 - What color do you like?
Wŏ xĭhuan hóng sè! 我 喜 欢 红 色 – I like red.
hóng 红 – red
huáng 黄 - yellow
lán 蓝 – blue
lǜ 绿 - green
hēi 黑 – black
bái 白 – white
zōng 棕 – brown
zĭ 紫 - violet
huī 灰 – grey
fĕn 粉 - pink